That deal put the political process back on centre stage. Lavrov urged the US this week to «use whatever power it has» to exert its influence on the multifarious opposition to make good on the Geneva II talks.

The Russian top diplomat said: «The main obstacle on this path remains our [American] partners’ inability to make the Syrian opposition, which they are looking after, go to Geneva and sit at the negotiating table with the government».

Lavrov is too much of a statesman to use impolite language. But the essence of what he is saying is this: Washington has created a mess in Syria that it doesn’t have the power to fix.

Rather fittingly, in a world where the US government is seen as financially bankrupt, it is also being seen, glaringly, as a bankrupt geopolitical force.

Bankrupt at home and abroad, Syria underscores the inescapable fact that Washington is a spent geopolitical player.